New York Times Killed Story About Bush's Controversial Debate Bulge

Remember the bulge noticed on W’s back during all three debates? While it will forever go down in history as a mere late night punchline, apparently the New York Times planned to run an expose on the issue the Thursday before election day. Most will remember that earlier in the week the paper had ran an exposé of the Al-Qaqaa ammunition dump. This story was planned as a companiion piece of sorts. It appears the Times researched this heavily and had put together a lot of information, none of which would have been flattering for the President. However, the paper chose to pull it in the eleventh hour, and now claim it never even existed. Several reporters who contributed to the story have come forward out of pure frustration.

In the weeks leading up to the November 2 election, the New York Times was abuzz with excitement. Besides the election itself, the paper’s reporters were hard at work on two hot investigative projects, each of which could have a major impact on the outcome of the tight presidential race.

One week before Election Day, the Times (10/25/04) ran a hard-hitting and controversial exposé of the Al-Qaqaa ammunition dump—identified by U.N. inspectors before the war as containing 400 tons of special high-density explosives useful for aircraft bombings and as triggers for nuclear devices, but left unguarded and available to insurgents by U.S. forces after the invasion.

On Thursday, just three days after that first exposé, the paper was set to run a second, perhaps more explosive piece, exposing how George W. Bush had worn an electronic cueing device in his ear and probably cheated during the presidential debates.

The so-called Bulgegate story had been getting tremendous attention on the Internet. Stories about it had also run in many mainstream papers, including the New York Times (10/9/04, 10/18/04) and Washington Post (10/9/04), but most of these had been light-hearted. Indeed, the issue had even made it into the comedy circuit, including the monologues of…

Posted by Hierosis